As a mystery writer, I’m always ripping out newspaper or magazine articles and
copying/pasting links that might someday become an inspiration for a future
book. The premise for the first book in my Hamptons Home and Garden
Mystery series came from a magazine article I read about writer Sally Quinn
purchasing the falling-in-ruin Grey Gardens in East Hampton, New York. In the
article, Ms. Quinn talked about the items she’d discovered in the mansion’s
attic and how she restored the interior of the house, based on old photographs,
to its original splendor. I tore out the article and filed it under, “Story
Ideas.” A few years later, I went to my file and found the article. As an
antiques dealer and fixer-upper, the thought of treasure in an old attic at an
estate where the rich and famous live and die, gave me the idea for BETTER HOMES AND CORPSES.
Hamptons Home &
Garden #1
After Meg Barrett found her fiancé still had designs on his ex-wife, she
decided it was time to refurbish her life. Leaving her glamorous job at a top
home and garden magazine, she fled Manhattan for Montauk, only to find
decorating can sometimes lead to detecting…
In between scouring
estate sales for her new interior design business, Cottages by the Sea, Meg
visits the swanky East Hampton home of her old college roommate, Jillian
Spenser. But instead of seeing how the other half lives—she learns how the other
half dies. Jillian’s mother, known as the Queen Mother of the Hamptons, has been
murdered. Someone has staged a coup.
When she helps a friend inventory
the Spensers’ estate for the insurance company, Meg finds herself right in the
thick of things. Cataloging valuable antiques and art loses its charm when Meg
discovers that the Spenser family has been hiding dangerous secrets, which may
have furnished a murderer with a motive. As Meg gets closer to the truth, the
killer will do anything to paint her out of the picture…
Mystery Cozy [Berkley Prime Crime, On Sale: August 4, 2015, Paperback /
e-Book, ISBN: 9780425276587 / eISBN: 9780698171039]
The inspiration for my second Hamptons Home and Garden Mystery came from a
newspaper article I read in Dan’s Hamptons about Andy Warhol’s estate
in Montauk selling for fifty million dollars. I added the article to my file.
Voila! A year later it gave me the idea for HEARSE AND GARDENS, whose
main storyline is about a wealthy Pop Art broker’s murdered son and a missing
Andy Warhol painting of a can of Aqua Net Hairspray.
Hamptons Home &
Garden
A Hamptons interior designer deals with skeletons in the closet in the new
mystery from the national bestelling author of Better Homes and
Corpses.
To keep her mind off the legal battle over the oceanfront cottage she’s
trying to buy, Meg agrees to help her friend inventory and clear out furniture
from the massive Montauk estate of wealthy art broker Harrison Falks. But the
job takes a terrifying turn when Meg discovers a skeleton in a hidden room in
one of the estate’s many bungalows. The remains turn out to be those of
Harrison’s son, who went missing nearly twenty years ago—along with one of his
father’s Warhol paintings.
As Meg delves into the Hamptons’ pop art past, she gets drawn into the
sketchy goings-on and family drama at the estate. But when Meg makes no bones
about solving the crime, she just might become the subject of the killer’s next
installation.
INCLUDES RECIPES AND DECORATING TIPS
Mystery Cozy [Berkley Prime Crime, On Sale: May 3, 2016, Paperback /
e-Book, ISBN: 9780425276594 / eISBN: 9780698171077]
Years ago, I was sitting in my backyard reading a story in The New York
Times about F. Scott Fitzgerald, “A Fleeting Era’s Timeless Chronicle” by
Patrick J. Lyons. The first sentence in the article had me hooked. “Few places
that F. Scott Fitzgerald inhabited over a short and shallow-rooted life infused
his writing the way Long Island did.” The article went on to tell how Fitzgerald
wrote The Great Gatsby from his rented home in Great Neck, Long Island,
a short distance away from where I sat. Also mentioned in The New York
Times piece was a short story Fitzgerald wrote that takes place in Montauk,
called, “The Unspeakable Egg.” In the file, it went.
As you’ve probably guessed, the article became the inspiration for my third book
about what would happen if an unpublished F. Scott Fitzgerald novel surfaced in
the Hamptons, and shortly after, the manuscript’s authenticator was found dead.
Soon, I was off on a journey that would lead my protagonist, Meg Barrett, to the
Bibliophile Bed & Breakfast in the old whaling village of Sag Harbor, rich
with history and the home of many famous American authors. The seed was sown and
eventually budded into GHOSTAL LIVING.
Hamptons Home &
Garden
In the latest mystery from the author of Better Homes and
Corpses and Hearse and Gardens, Hamptons interior designer and
antiques picker Meg Barrett uncovers a veil of spooky goings-on...
The first Sag Harbor Antiquarian Book and Ephemera Fair is right around the
corner, and interior designer Meg Barrett has her hands full decorating rooms at
the Bibliophile Bed & Breakfast for wealthy rare book collector Franklin
Hollingsworth. Rumor has it Hollingsworth is in possession of an unpublished
manuscript written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. When the Fitzgerald manuscript's
authenticator is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, Meg suspects a killer is
on the loose.
Rare books start disappearing from the B & B and Meg sees a connection
between the stolen books and the deceased authenticator. With the fair looming,
she finds herself caught up in catching a killer and thief before another victim
is booked for death.
INCLUDES RECIPES AND DECORATING TIPS
Mystery Cozy [Berkley Prime Crime, On Sale: May 2, 2017, Mass Market
Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780425276600 / eISBN: 9780425276600]
Well, it’s time to write my next book. I’m sure somewhere in my files there’s a
seed ready for germination. Right now, what might bloom is a mystery…
Kathleen Bridge started her writing career working at the Michigan State
University News in East Lansing, Michigan.
Bridge is the author and
photographer of an antiques reference guide, Lithographed Paper Toys, Books, and
Games, a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and has taught
creative writing classes at THE Bryant Library in Roslyn, New York.
She
is also an antiques and vintage dealer in Long Island, New York, and A Home and
Garden Magazine-aholic.
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